Spain’s Socialists to grant amnesty to Catalan separatists in exchange for support of new government
By Ciarán Giles And Joseph Wilson, The Associated Press on November 9, 2023.
MADRID (AP) – Spain’s Socialist Party has struck a deal with a fringe Catalan separatist party to grant an amnesty for potentially thousands of people involved in the region’s failed secession bid in exchange for its key backing of acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to form a new government. Socialist lawmaker and party official Santos Cerdán announced the deal on Thursday in Brussels after sealing the agreement with the party led by Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium after leading the failed 2017 independence attempt for Catalonia. The decision greatly boosts Sánchez’s chances of forming another minority leftist coalition government. Sánchez, a Socialist and Spain’s leader since 2018, still needs the backing a small Basque party but he is likely to achieve that. ___ Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. 6-5
